Chapter 285: Winning Half a Game Against Heaven!

He had been watching the woman before him for a long time.

Or rather, his focus had not been on the woman herself, but on the Eight Trigrams Furnace. He only wanted to dispose of her because she was an anomaly.

Yet the woman had hidden herself away.

Constrained by the Immortal Decree of the Eight Trigrams Furnace, he could not interfere with the mortal realm, and his indirect methods could never slip past her uncanny intuition.

That was why this anomaly had survived until today.

As for the passage-granting Immortal Decree in his hands, it could only be used once every three hundred years. He had originally planned to save it for a decisive final strike when closing the net on his grand scheme.

But he could wait no longer.

If he waited any longer, Wang Ping, currently in the Brahma Nation, would use the Great Rebellion Exploits from killing Jin Hai and Wu Chi to overturn his locked Divine Powers through the Martial Dao.

This was something he absolutely could not tolerate.

However, Wang Ping's situation was unique. He had no way to directly interfere using a higher dimension's mighty power. Even if he tried, the forces in the Brahma Nation would intervene to stop him.

Thus, he had to find another way.

"You are forcing me to kill you."

The blurry figure in the higher dimension spoke faintly. Reflected in reality, the Rainbow Passing Through the Sky merely rippled. The voice was entirely inaudible to Mortals.

Yet the woman smiled.

As a Mortal, she indeed could not hear the blurry figure's voice. But the moment he spoke, her intuition had already guessed his words.

Without hesitation, she replied, "Indeed. If you, Senior, kill me—the source of the Martial Dao—my good disciple's soaring Martial Dao, elevated by his Great Rebellion Exploits, will instantly suffer a devastating blow. It will plummet back down, perhaps even becoming locked just like his Divine Powers."

It would become a pool of stagnant water.

Without a source, no matter how vast the waters or how fierce the current, no further progress would be possible. That was exactly what the blurry figure intended to do.

"You have no choice but to kill me."

"And yet, as long as I remain inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace, you will absolutely fail to kill me unless you use the Immortal Decree in your hands. You might not even find me."

She laughed happily.

On the other side, the blurry figure's gaze deepened. His divine sense, which towered above all creation, had already swept over her with meticulous scrutiny countless times.

Yet he found nothing.

"You know too much," the blurry figure continued. "Which lineage of the Great Rebellion is it? Or are you the reincarnation of one of its remnants?"

The woman didn't answer.

"Honestly, from the very beginning, I never expected to hide the forging of the Heavenly Martial Campaign Profound Armor from you," she said. "Others might have thought you were blinded by the sudden appearance of the Wood Qi Daoist Master, but I knew you weren't, because you monitor every change within the Eight Trigrams Furnace constantly."

"You knew exactly what was going to happen."

"I guessed that you wanted to use me as bait to draw out the hidden enemies plotting against you," the woman continued.

"And it worked. You actually managed to fish out a Wood Qi Daoist Master."

At this point, she gave a light chuckle. "But you still miscalculated. You never anticipated that people from the Brahma Nation would show up right then."

Luan Phoenix Khan.

His appearance provided Wang Ping with a secret treasure that allowed direct travel to the Brahma Nation, giving him a way to break the deadlock just when he should have failed.

And this variable—

"Did you control it?" the blurry figure demanded.

"Of course not."

The woman shook her head. "My intuition simply told me that forging the artifact in Guanchao City at that exact time would be most advantageous for me."

That unreasonable intuition again!

It operated outside the bounds of cause and effect, entirely detached from destiny. She acted without reason, taking steps that seemed meaningless, only for them to become perfectly useful at a crucial moment.

Inconceivable.

In the blurry figure's eyes, this could even be considered another form of mighty power. Otherwise, he wouldn't have offered his heartfelt praise earlier.

The woman unhooked the wine gourd from her waist and took a heavy swig. Smiling, she said, "Anyway, today, Senior, you have no choice but to kill me. Once you do, for the next three hundred years, no matter what other schemes you have in the Eight Trigrams Furnace, you won't be able to forcefully intervene again."

"Well?"

She looked up, meeting the gaze of the blurry figure standing in the higher dimension. "Does this count as me winning a piece against you, Senior?"

A brief silence hung in the air.

Then, the twenty-four-color glowing clouds rippled softly. The blurry figure chuckled. "I'll grant you've won half a game against heaven. I truly did underestimate you."

"That's not bad either."

The woman nodded slightly. "In that case, I'll let my good disciple play the remaining half with you, Senior. But I bet you will lose again."

"I shall wait and see."

A gentle breeze blew past. With a smile still on her lips, the woman fractured inch by inch in the wind, turning to ash amid the shifting light of the glowing clouds.

She was dead.

However, the blurry figure didn't leave. Instead, his admiration grew. "Just an empty shell. She cultivated the Taiyin Form-Shedding Ascension Scripture."

"She borrowed its principles and turned them into her own method."

"Her comprehension was truly extraordinary."

If the First Seat had created the Martial Dao merely to cultivate the Civilization-Manifesting Ultimate-Founding Qi and refine qi using the human yang fire, she would undoubtedly be dead right now. But she was not.

From the very beginning, the Martial Dao she pioneered was entirely based on Divine Intent. It existed outside the Twenty-Four Qi, transcending the five elements and the eight trigrams. Even if her body perished, her spirit could survive!

With his level of cultivation, he instantly reached a conclusion: "She learned the Method of Corpse Liberation, leaving behind a useless physical body while her spirit broke free to become its own entity. Inconceivable. Just what exactly is this Martial Dao Divine Intent? It's unfathomable. Without a physical body, where has her spirit hidden?"

The blurry figure looked down upon the world.

"Wherever she is, it must be within this Eight Trigrams Furnace. Besides, your lifespan is near its end. Even if your spirit broke away, your destined lifespan cannot change."

"If that's the case..."

The blurry figure vanished abruptly. An unimaginable mighty power crashed down from the higher dimension into reality!

No one noticed the anomaly.

Only the Heaven's Will Profound Blade, hanging high in the sky, sensed that something was wrong. Yet it couldn't escape. It could only watch helplessly as this mighty power descended upon it.

At that moment.

A full ten years of time within the entire Eight Trigrams Furnace was reduced to an "illusory falsehood," extracted, and pulled right into the blurry figure's palm!

According to his calculations, the woman's remaining lifespan wouldn't exceed ten years. By extracting ten years of time from the entire Eight Trigrams Furnace, she would be affected no matter where she was hiding inside. She would age and die—unless she wasn't inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace, but hiding outside it.

"Hmm... just in case."

With that thought, the blurry figure quietly shattered. His imposing will withdrew from the Eight Trigrams Furnace and instantly returned to his true body located in the Brahma Nation.

Next, Daoist Master Hanguang Danyang lowered his eyes.

His gaze was impartial, covering the Cosmos. It shuttled through this near-frozen time and finally fell upon Wang Ping, who was just about to execute Wu Chi.

More accurately, it fell upon the Heavenly Martial Campaign Profound Armor on Wang Ping's body.

A True Person's gaze was enough to dissect the secrets of any Spiritual Treasure. If the woman's detached Divine Intent was hiding within this spiritual armor, he would definitely discover it.

Yet the result left him quite disappointed.

"...Nothing."

The twenty-four-color glowing clouds rippled slightly, reflecting the True Person's thoughts. His formless gaze shifted, looking toward the Cosmic Deep Space where the Immortal Gate was entrenched.

Was it possible she had hidden inside the Immortal Gate?

Truthfully, he was tempted to extract ten years of time from the entire Immortal Gate as well. But after mulling it over, he abandoned the idea.

The risk was too great. He wasn't the only True Person in the Immortal Gate. Doing such a thing would spark public outrage, and even with his cultivation and strength, the backlash would be hard to bear.

"Never mind. In the end, I lost half a game against heaven."

"If she is truly dead, then this is where it ends. But if she is still alive... I will wait for her to enter the board again, and I'll win back the half-game I lost."

With that, Daoist Master Hanguang Danyang finally withdrew his gaze.

...........

"Boom!"

Almost simultaneously, Wang Ping's motion to execute Wu Chi froze in place. His Martial Dao imagery, which had previously elevated to its absolute peak, plummeted.

The Divine Powers that were on the verge of being overturned locked shut once more.

"What happened!?"

Wang Ping's pupils shrank violently.

On the other side, Wu Chi noticed Wang Ping's anomaly. Recognizing the perfect opportunity, he instantly burned more than half his divine sense, throwing up a streak of golden light to escape.

At the same time, Nurong and Suoze, who had previously blocked Xianfu and Kunlun, didn't dare to linger either. Throwing an extremely wary glance at Wang Ping's position, they deployed their escape lights and fled. Yet right now, Wang Ping had no mind to care about them. He closed his eyes tightly, sensing his Great Rebellion Exploits.

'The Great Rebellion Exploits are fine.'

Disbelief surged in his eyes.

'It's the Martial Dao that had an issue... Did something happen to the First Seat? How is that possible? With her intuition, unless she sought death herself, who could possibly kill her?'

'No, that's not right!'

A second later, a sudden thought struck him: 'There's still a thread of life. Although the Martial Dao's momentum plummeted, it hasn't shattered completely. She should only be gravely injured?'

'And after this massive drop in momentum, the center of gravity of the Martial Dao seems to have shifted, landing on me. With my current Martial Dao strength, combined with the Heavenly Martial Campaign Profound Armor, I'm almost on par with the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer of the Immortal Dao. Has she completely entrusted the Martial Dao to me?'

What kind of joke was this!

What exactly had his master done?

...........

Immortal Gate, Bliss Immortal Peak.

You Xuexin was seated within her Cave Abode when she suddenly sensed something. A gentle breeze brushed past, and for a fleeting moment, she thought she saw a woman.

"Hahaha..."

The woman's laughter was filled with uninhibited joy. "No wonder. No wonder my intuition told me to leave a strand of my divine sense outside back then. So it was for today."

Thinking back to when Wang Ping first formally visited the Immortal Gate alongside Xuanhe, she had split off a strand of Divine Intent to accompany him. Just before Wang Ping was killed by Kunyun, that strand had stayed behind inside the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Flag. But later, when You Xuexin returned the treasure to Wang Ping, she did not return with it.

Instead, she had stayed behind at the Immortal Gate, continuing to lie dormant.

That choice led to today's outcome. It was exactly as she had told Chenlong before: in their thirty-seventy odds of survival, this was the meager thirty percent chance. But looking at it now—

"My luck was quite good." The woman was completely satisfied.

This was truly exhilarating.

If a chess player died, even winning meant nothing. A dead person couldn't continue placing pieces, and any brief advantage would eventually be reversed.

It was better to survive.

Being able to keep playing, playing all the way to the final endgame—that was truly winning half a game against heaven.

Moreover, trading a useless physical shell for the True Person's single opportunity to interfere with the mortal realm, adding endless variables to the future—that was an incredible profit.

"Excellent."